Born and raised in New Jersey, John Bushnell
began his musical quest on guitar one month before turning nine. Inspired first
by the Beatles, he eventually became immersed in the blues based players of
the day. The techniques and sounds of Clapton, Jeff Beck, Mike Bloomfield,
Albert King, Hendrix, Jimmy Page and guitar players too numerous to mention
were all teachers to John's ears and he aspired to absorb as much from
them as possible.
In high school he played in numerous
bands and continued to develop his style. After graduating, he became a member
of the Castle Browne Band and immediately began focusing on original material
and playing the club scene three to four nights a week. In addition to working
with the band, he landed a part time job at Princeton's McCarter Theatre
as a stage/guitar tech for the many acts that passed through town. He worked
with groups like the Beach Boys, Dr. John, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band,
Ravi Shankar, Bruce Springsteen, Meatloaf, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker
Band, Miles Davis, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. All gave John an amazing and
diverse musical education as well as a chance to be up close and personal with
the artists themselves.
After leaving the Castle Browne Band in the
early 80's, he did a brief stint with Tom Bleck who was signed to RCA
but quickly moved on to join the band, Bricks Mortar, with Charles Collins,
house drummer for Sigma Sound Studios in Phila. and Michael Tschudin, producer
and one time David Bowie keyboardist. The band was signed to Sutra Records
and recorded an EP but eventually recorded their own album and released it
on Zebra Records.
Around this time, John was approached by the
Ibanez guitar company and found himself being featured in an ad campaign for
one of their new models in Guitar Player, Musician, Guitar World and other
publications. This relationship grew and he became a demonstrator of their
guitars and effects at the NAMM trade shows, as well as, the Guitar and Music
Expo held at Madison Square Garden.
By the late 80's, John had left Bricks Mortar and
formed a power trio known as Unguided Missile with Angel Resto on bass and
Peter Browne on drums, who was later replaced by Mark Sacco. They played a
blues and hard rock style of music throughout the tri-state area. It was at
this same time that John was picked to host the “Virtuoso Guitar Series” at
a top New York City club. John continued to write material and explore more
guitar possibilities. Ibanez gave John one of the first 7 string guitars, which
he used on his first solo album entitled “7th Sense”. The album
received favorable reviews in the U.S. and Europe.
John next formed a group with Hal Selzer on bass. Adrian
Dodz, as it was called, played relentlessly all over the tri-state area and
recorded a CD of hard rocking material which got the band signed to Epic Records.
Years later, the recordings from this band were picked up by Escape Records
and released in Europe and Japan under the name “Silent Witness”.
Through
all the years of writing, recording and playing in different bands, John
has worked on many movie scores and recording sessions for other artists in
virtually every style of contemporary music. At the present time he is working at
the Pennington School where he created and teaches the Blues/Pop/Rock Ensemble,
and shares his knowledge of the recording and the music business.
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Well I'll be!! It WAS the 13th of Friday!! We didn't notice since we were having such a great time!! Thanks so much and come back real soon to play or just say hello! You guys are the best! Sue & John- The Record Collector
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